I've been having some problems recently with word problems. I'm still not used to English, I guess.
So:

Consider the Integral expression in .

Where and the value of is a rational number for any which satisfies the equation , and in this case the value of is:

I'm sorry if there's any typos in there, I've copied this some time ago.

What "the integral expression in " means?

The word "integral" has two completely different meanings in English. It can mean something to do with integration, or it can mean something to do with integers.

My guess is that this is an algebra problem, not a calculus problem, and that "the integral expression in " means "a function of whose value is an integer". So forget about integration, and think about integers. As you correctly say, the solutions of the equation are . Plug those values into the expression , and find the value of for which the answer is an integer. In other words, choose so that terms involving cancel out and you are left with an "integral" answer.

Hi HallsofIvy!
hahah the a=-4 part is the answer!
Sorry If I haven't made myself clear.

Originally Posted by HallsofIvy

If what is ? What is ? What is ? What value of a will make that an integer?

Right! = when =

I'm not sure where you want to get here, sorry.
I'm still not sure about the end of that equation.
It also says that a is a rational number.
This has been omited so far, I'm sorry.

Working on the question we get.

Ok, so if we equal this to zero and square both sides we can get
a^2=73/4
This gives something close to 4.23...
Close enough, but is this conclusive?
We still have to find the value of P when a is in our desired value.

Edit: Can some moderator please move this topic to it's right place?
This looks like but is not a calculus problem.

Last edited by Zellator; May 27th 2011 at 08:58 AM.
Reason: Ask for the movement of the topic

Hi HallsofIvy!
hahah the a=-4 part is the answer!
Sorry If I haven't made myself clear.

Right! = when =

Okay- but that is not what I get for . For you should have , not what you have.

I'm not sure where you want to get here, sorry.
I'm still not sure about the end of that equation.
It also says that a is a rational number.
This has been omited so far, I'm sorry.

Working on the question we get.

Ok, so if we equal this to zero and square both sides we can get
a^2=73/4
This gives something close to 4.23...
Close enough, but is this conclusive?
We still have to find the value of P when a is in our desired value.

No, it does not equal 0- only the coefficient of has to be 0 in order that P be an integer.

Edit: Can some moderator please move this topic to it's right place?
This looks like but is not a calculus problem.